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Now we have the FA Cup quarter-final line-up we can properly plan for the next few gameweeks and the rest of the season.
There will only be four Premier League fixtures in gameweek 29 – Burnley v Brentford, Fulham v Tottenham, Luton v Nottingham Forest and West Ham v Aston Villa.
If you still have your Wildcard and Free Hit chips available then there are a few options open to you:
- Play the wildcard this week or in gameweek 28 to help you navigate gameweek 29 and save the Free Hit chip for double gameweek 34 or 37.
- Use the Free Hit chip to get you through gameweek 29 and then use the wildcard after that to set you up for the rest of the season.
- Take a few points hits on transfers over the next few gameweeks to get eight or nine starters for gameweek 29 and keep BOTH chips to use later on.
I’m still planning on the third approach and can get to the following line-up by gameweek 29 by taking a hit of minus eight points on transfer:
- Goalkeeper – Alphonse Areola
- Defenders – Pedro Porro, Alfie Doughty
- Midfielders – Son Heung-min, Richarlison, Jarrod Bowen, Douglas Luiz
- Forwards – Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney
It’s only nine starters but should mean I own a lot of the players that other managers will go for on their Free Hit.
The risk with this strategy of course is that you’ve got no back-up if any of them miss out through injury or squad rotation.
It also means I can’t fully attack gameweek 28, which is a double for Bournemouth and Luton, because I’m focusing my transfers towards gameweek 29.
I would then use my wildcard in gameweek 30 but just remember that some of the players you’ve sold will be more expensive to buy back on the wildcard so you need to take that into consideration as well.
Anyway let’s put that to one side for now and concentrate on what’s in front of us in gameweek 27.
Captaincy
Going against Erling Haaland worked last week if you opted for the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Ollie Watkins, but it’s even braver to do it this time around after his five goals against Luton Town in the FA Cup.
He also scored a hat-trick at home against Manchester United last season, as did Foden incidentally, and both of them scored again in the 3-0 win at Old Trafford in October.
Saka, Son or Richarlison would be my top three choices if you’re not giving the armband to Haaland or Foden and Mohamed Salah would also come into the conversation if we know he’s fit to start away at Nottingham Forest.
Fixtures to target
If you’re building your squad towards gameweek 29 then Tottenham, West Ham and Aston Villa attackers are all worth your consideration.
We discussed the Villa choices here last week and, whether you went for Douglas Luiz, Leon Bailey or Watkins, they all delivered points.
Lucas Paqueta’s return sparked West Ham back into life against Brentford but Bowen and Mohammed Kudus look like the men more likely to get the goals for you.
And Son is a popular man on the Fantasy 606 podcast as Chris Sutton and Statman Dave have both brought him into their teams for a fixture run that sees Tottenham face Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Fulham and Luton in their next four games.
If you’re not building for gameweek 29 and you’ve not used up your quota of Arsenal players then I think a second Gunners’ midfielder is an excellent choice with a potential differential available too.
Differentials
Kai Havertz has started five of Arsenal’s past six Premier League games in which they’ve scored 23 goals – in the past two matches he’s scored twice and provided two assists.
Gabriel Jesus’ return will obviously provide competition for places but at 1.8% ownership Havertz might be worth a punt.
Rodrigo Muniz is also only 1.8% owned and has looked very impressive for Fulham with four goals in his past four games but it’s difficult to go for him ahead of Haaland, Watkins and Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke at the moment, although we await an update on Solanke’s knee injury which kept him out of the FA Cup tie against Leicester.
I also like Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto as a differential for their game away to Burnley this weekend and then the double at home to Sheffield United and Luton in gameweek 28.
Gamble of the week
The usual – going against Haaland with the captaincy, although it’s something Chris Sutton’s got to do as he’s boldly decided to go without the Norwegian in his team for the rest of the season.
